10

Transatlantic Trends
Immigration

Key Findings 2010

Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
2010 Partners
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Highlights of Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010...................................................................................... 3

General Perceptions............................................................................................................................................. 5

Economic Hardship, Labor Markets, and Immigration..................................................................................... 8

Immigration and Welfare.................................................................................................................................. 13

Immigration and the Political Arena................................................................................................................ 16

Legal and Illegal Immigration: Perceptions and Policy Alternatives............................................................... 21

Immigrant Integration, Belonging, and Entitlements...................................................................................... 27

Conclusion......................................................................................................................................................... 34

Methodology...................................................................................................................................................... 36

Chart Index....................................................................................................................................................... 37

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 Immigration
Highlights of Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010
I n 2010, immigration dominated headlines in
Europe and North America like never before.
Though flows of new migrants slowed in 2008 and
2009 as a result of the economic crisis, Americans
grappled with questions of governance stemming
from legislation in Arizona, and asylum policy in
Canada made headlines after a number of high-
profile incidents. In September, France’s lower house
overwhelmingly passed a ban on face-covering veils
everywhere that can be considered public space.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders won 15% of the vote
for his Party for Freedom by running on an anti-
immigrant and anti-Islamic platform. In Germany, a
controversial book was released in August, drawing
national attention to the integration of Germany’s
Muslim minority.
In order to gauge the effects of these types of political
developments on public opinion, Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration (TTI) targets perceptions of immigrant
groups and support for immigration and integration
policies in a comparative context. Now in its third
year, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration continues to
measure public opinion on immigration issues on
both sides of the Atlantic. The countries included in
the 2010 version of the survey were the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy,
the Netherlands, and Spain. These eight migrant-
receiving countries each face unique challenges when
it comes to immigration and integration issues, and
2010 was the first year in which TTI yielded compa-
rable year-on-year data in each of them.
As many of the countries included in TTI were
still grappling with the aftermath of the economic
crisis in 2010, a primary focus of TTI 2010 was the
economy and its effects on attitudes. Transatlantic
Trends: Immigration 2010 asked North Americans and
T R A N S AT L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R AT I O N 2 0 1 0 | 3
Europeans several questions related to labor markets,
their own economic situation, and their perception of
their national economies in order to gauge whether
attitudes about immigration issues have changed as a
result of economic anxiety.
Another highlight of the 2010 survey is a focus on
integration issues. Given the salience of the European
debate in particular, the survey included questions
that allowed respondents to evaluate the integration
of various immigrant groups as well as the children
of immigrants. These questions are the first in the
history of TTI to ask specifically about second-gener-
ation integration.
Overall, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a compar-
ative study of North American and European public
opinion about immigration and integration issues. The
focused nature of the survey allows for a close look
at national immigration debates, while cross-country
comparisons help to put national opinions against
the backdrop of other migrant-receiving societies.
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a joint project of
the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Compagnia
di San Paolo, and the Barrow Cadbury Trust, with
additional support from the Fundación BBVA.
Note on Terminology: In this survey we used the term
“illegal immigrant,” as opposed to “irregular” or
“undocumented” migrant, to describe foreign citizens
who enter, stay, and/or work in the country without
the permission of the national government.
Key findings of the survey include:
nn Immigration as a Problem or an Opportunity:
Perceptions of immigration as a problem or
opportunity have showed little variance since
2008, the first year of the survey. Majorities
in the United States, the U.K., and Spain still
saw immigration as a problem, while French,
German, Dutch, and Italian respondents
remained divided. Canadians continued to see
immigration as an opportunity.
nn Overestimation of Immigrant Numbers:
Compared to 2009, even more respondents
overestimated the percentage of population born
abroad. Estimates rose in 2010 in the United
States, with respondents believing 39% of the
population was born abroad, up from 35% in
2009. The real figure is less than 14%.
nn Discontent with Immigration Policies: Most
countries showed disapproval with government
management of immigration. Majorities in
the United States (73%), the U.K. (70%), Spain
(61%), France (58%), and the Netherlands (54%)
believed the government was doing a poor job
in immigration management. Only Canada was
split, with 48% offering positive views and 43%
responding negatively.
nn Contact with Immigrants Impacts Perception: Of
Europeans claiming to have many immigrant
friends, 68% in 2010 believed immigration
enriches national culture. Only 40% of Europeans
with no immigrant friends thought likewise.
nn Economic Hardship and Attitudes: Among
unemployed Europeans, 43% believed
immigrants take jobs from natives; the average
in Europe was 35%. In the United States, 63% of
those whose financial situation worsened in 2010
saw immigrants as a threat in the job market
jobs, more than the average of 56%.
nn Perceived Fiscal Burden: Overall, majorities or
pluralities in all countries polled believed that
immigrants benefit more from health and welfare
services than they contribute in taxes. Spain and
the United States had the highest proportion
agreeing with this statement (both 67%).
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nn European Support for Healthcare Coverage: In
continental Europe, where public healthcare is
the norm, majorities were in favor of granting
both legal and illegal immigrants access to both
emergency and general healthcare.
nn Immigration Still Sways Votes: Compared to 2008,
respondents answering that a political party’s
stance on immigration would impact their vote
was down slightly to 45% from 50% in 2008. In
the U.K., however, 63% said immigration policy
would affect their vote, and 67% of Americans
said likewise, up from 56% in 2008.
nn Legalization of Illegal Immigrants: Respondents
remained divided in the 2010 survey as to
whether to grant illegal immigrants legal status.
Canada and the United States were split, whereas
majorities in the U.K. (67%) and Italy (55%) said
that illegal immigrants should be made to return
to their country of origin.
nn Immigrant Integration: Most in Europe held
unfavorable views on the state of immigrant
integration. Spain was the only country with a
slight majority (54%) saying that immigrants
are integrating well. North Americans held a
more positive view, with 59% of Americans and
65% of Canadians claiming that immigrants are
integrating well.
nn Second-Generation Muslims: Integration of
the children of Muslim migrants was viewed
favorably in Canada (66%), the United States
(62%), Italy (60%), the U.K. (59%), and the
Netherlands (56%). France was split, with 50%
answering likewise, while the Spanish (42%) and
Germans (36%) indicated that second-generation
Muslims were not integrating well.
nn Immigrant Voting Rights: When asked whether
legal immigrants or only citizens should have the
right to vote in municipal elections, majorities
in Spain (62%), France (58%), the Netherlands
(56%), and Italy (52%) voiced support for giving
the right to legal immigrants. Slight majorities
in the U.K. and Canada (51%) said that only
citizens should have the right to vote, and a
majority in the United States (62%) also thought
that voting should be reserved for citizens.
 Immigration

General Perceptions

G eneral perception about immigration is

addressed in Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
through a question: Is immigration seen as more of a
national debates about immigration, the proportions
of respondents saying that immigration is either
a problem or an opportunity have stayed within a
problem or more of an opportunity for your country. narrow range in each country. (See Chart 1.)
This question has been asked in the survey since
2008, and the data from 2008 to 2009 seemed to show
WORRIES ABOUT ECONOMY PERSIST
a trend toward more pessimism about immigration.
In 2010, the first question asked in Transatlantic
In every country, more respondents in 2009 than
Trends: Immigration was about the most important
in 2008 answered that immigration was “more of a
issue facing the country today. Respondents across all
problem” than an opportunity for their countries.
countries surveyed consistently cited “the economy”
In 2010, however, the data show that general atti-
or “unemployment” as the most important issue. A
tudes about immigration are largely stable in each
notable outlier was the British; while 25% said that
country. Despite economic recession and various
the economy was the most important issue, 23% said

Chart 1:
Stable Perceptions: Respondents Saying Immigration is More of
A Problem than an Opportunity
70

2008 2009 2010 66 65

60
61
58
54 53
50 52
49 50

44 44 45 45 45
40 43
Percent

42
39 39 39
36
30

27
25
20

10

Canada France Germany Netherlands Italy United Spain United

States Kingdom
Source: Q26; see Chart Index

T R A N S AT L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R AT I O N 2 0 1 0 | 5
instead that immigration was the most important.
Unemployment came in third, with 20% of the British
claiming it is the top issue.
On the availability of jobs, a plurality or majority in
every country except Canada also said that there were
“very few jobs” available in the area where respon-
dents lived. This was especially true in Spain (85%),
Italy (75%), and the United Stated (60%). Overall, it is
clear that the respondents of TTI in all countries were
aware of the economic problems facing their countries,
regardless of whether they were personally affected.
POPULATIONS STILL OVERESTIMATE
IMMIGRANT NUMBERS
Respondents to Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
2010 were asked to estimate, on a scale of 0 to 100,
the percentage of the population in their country that
was born abroad. Just as in 2009, the public grossly
overestimated the percent share of immigrants in their
countries. In Italy, for instance, immigrants make
up nearly 7% of the country’s population, but Italian
respondents of the survey guessed, on average, that a
full quarter (25%) of the population of Italy was immi-
grant. Spanish respondents were the most accurate in
their estimation, with a seven-point difference between
the average guess (21%) and the real share of immi-
grants in the country (14%). In North America, over-
estimates grew from 2009 to 2010. In 2009, Americans
thought that 35% of the population was immigrant;
in 2010, they thought that nearly two-in-five (39%) of
the people in the United States were born in another
country. Canadian estimates of immigrant populations
also rose. In 2009, the Canadian estimate was 37%; in
2010, it rose to 39%. The real immigrant proportion
of the population in the United States and Canada is
around 14% and 20%, respectively.
FACTS CHANGE PERCEPTION
One question that Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
has asked since 2008 is whether there are “too many,”
“a lot but not too many,” or “not many” immigrants
in one’s country. The responses to this question in
each country remained relatively stable from 2008
to 2009, so in 2010 the survey tested whether infor-
mation would change responses. To do this, some
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respondents were asked the question without any
information, while other respondents were quoted the
official estimate of immigrants as a percentage of the
country’s population before being asked the ques-
tion. It was found that those who heard the official
estimate before answering were less likely, especially
in France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, to say that
there were “too many” immigrants in the country.
Also, information greatly increased the numbers of
respondents claiming that there were “not many”
immigrants in their country. In Europe, the average
percentage answering “not many” was only 12%.
Among those who received information, however,
the figure more than doubled, to 26% answering that
there were “not many” immigrants in their countries.
The United States and Canada saw similar shifts in
the “not many” category. They jumped from 17% in
both countries without information to 33% in the
United States and 35% in Canada with information
about the immigrant share of their country’s popu-
lation. Accordingly, the proportion of respondents
saying that there were “too many” immigrants in their
countries dropped with information, especially in
France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and
Italy, which saw a 20 percentage point drop when
quoted the official statistic of foreign-born residents.
(See Chart 2.)
DISCUSSING WITH FRIENDS, BUT NOT NEWS,
CORRELATED WITH PERCEPTIONS
In 2010, TTI asked North Americans and Europeans
whether they followed news on immigration matters
and how often they discussed such matters with
friends. It was found that respondents who claimed
that they discuss immigration matters with friends
“frequently” were more likely to say that there are too
many immigrants in the country. For instance, 62%
of Europeans who talk about immigration matters
frequently say that there are too many immigrants in
the country, versus just 31% of Europeans who never
discuss immigration matters. Americans who discuss
immigration with their friends frequently are also
more likely to say that illegal immigrants outnumber
legal immigrants in the United States by a margin of 13
points (69% vs. 56% among those who never discuss
immigration). These findings are merely correlated and
do not necessarily cause each other. However, it is note-
 Chart 2:
“Too Many Immigrants?” Knowledge of Immigrant
Population Changes Perception
70

Respondents who said there are

60 "too many" immigrants in their country...
Of those who received the statistic 59
of national immigrant population
50 53
Of those who received no information
46
40
41
Percent

37 37
30 33
32
27 27
25
20 23
20
17
16
10 13

Canada Germany Netherlands France United Spain Italy United

States Kingdom
Source: Q4a, Q4b; see Chart Index

worthy that the highly-educated (who are generally
more immigrant-friendly) and the less-educated (who
tend to be more skeptical, on average) are roughly as
likely to say that they discuss immigration matters with
friends frequently and thus to say that there are too
many immigrants in the country.
CONTACT CORRELATED
WITH POSITIVE ATTITUDES
As has been documented with other public opinion
surveys, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration has shown
that contact with immigrants is correlated with more
positive perceptions of immigration in general. For
instance, a majority of Europeans and Americans
with many immigrant friends see immigration as
an opportunity, whereas a majority of those with
no immigrant friends see immigration as more of a
problem. The same correlation is seen when asked
about the cultural impact of immigration. Among
Europeans with many immigrant friends, 68%
said that immigration enriches culture. Only 40%
of Europeans with no immigrant friends thought
likewise – more (50%) said that immigration instead
negatively affects national culture.

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 Immigration

Economic Hardship, Labor Markets, and Immigration

T he countries surveyed in Transatlantic Trends:

Immigration 2010 still continue to experience
many of the negative impacts of the economic crisis
that began in 2008. Unemployment increased in most
of the eight North American and European countries
polled. In 2009, we found relatively little evidence of
the economic crisis’ impact on public opinion in the
TTI survey. The only finding that pointed to greater
skepticism due to financial worries was a slight
tendency of respondents to say that they were more
worried about legal immigration to their country if
their own, personal economic situation had gotten
worse over the previous 12 months. This finding was
seen across all countries except in the United States.
In 2010, TTI reveals much more data about
economics and attitudes about immigration, particu-
larly in regards to labor markets. In its third year, TTI
included a number of questions to get a profile of
respondents’ own economic situation and perspective
on the economy in order to compare those profiles to
attitudes. Overall, the findings showed that percep-
tions about immigration’s impact on labor markets
were highly sensitive to respondents’ own employ-
ment status, financial situation, and worries about
national labor markets.

Chart 3:
Differing Views of Labor-Market Competition
70

Immigrants take jobs

60 away from natives
Immigrants bring
58
down wages of citizens 56
50 52 52
Percent Agreeing

44
40

35
30
32
30

20

10

Canada European Average United States United Kingdom

Source: Q9.1 and Q9.4; see Chart Index

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 COUNTRY PROFILE: Spain
Although new reports indicate that Spain’s busi-
ness climate may improve, the past two years of
economic crisis have left a long road to recovery.
Spain’s unemployment rate, which currently
stands at around 20%, is double the average across
the European Union. Immigrants have been hit
particularly hard by the economic crisis in Spain,
with unemployment rates currently at around
30% (the average unemployment rate for native
Spaniards is 18%). The widening unemployment
gap between native Spaniards and immigrants is
largely due to the fact that migrants have typically
worked in areas that were the most vulnerable to
the economic recession, including the construc-
tion and manufacturing industries.
The data for Spain in this year’s Transatlantic
Trends: Immigration echoed many of the develop-
ments above. For example, 55% of respondents
cited unemployment as the most important issue
facing Spain, and in response to a question about
the availability of jobs where they live, 85% said
there are very few available jobs. A low number
(33%) of respondents agreed that immigrants help
AMERICANS AND BRITISH FEAR
LABOR-MARKET COMPETITION
In Canada and in all five continental European coun-
tries surveyed, majorities disagreed that immigrants
take jobs away from the native-born. In contrast, 58%
of British and 56% of American respondents claimed
that immigrants do take jobs away from nationals.
Similarly, 52% of American and British respondents
in 2010 thought that immigrants lower the wages of
citizens. This was an opinion that contrasted with
Canadians and most other Europeans, who disagreed
that immigrants lower wages for the native-born. The
only exception was Spain, where 52% thought that
immigrants lower Spanish wages. It should be noted,
however, that this was down ten percentage points, as
62% of the Spanish thought that immigrants lowered
wages in 2009. On labor-market competition overall, it
seems that the United Kingdom and the United States
T R A N S AT L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R AT I O N 2 0 1 0 | 9
create jobs as they set up new businesses in Spain,
which is significantly lower than the European
average (43%), Canadian (67%), and American
(58%) response. Though they are comparatively
pessimistic about immigrants’ job-creating
potential, Spanish respondents in 2010 consider
immigrants to be less of a threat in the labor
market. Only 38% of Spanish respondents said
that immigrants take jobs away from native born
Spaniards (down from 43% in 2009) and 52% said
that immigrants lower the wages of Spanish citi-
zens (down from 62% in 2009). Though causation
is impossible to prove, these changing perceptions
could be due to a recognition that immigrants
have been disproportionally affected by Spain’s
economic and labor-market woes.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
5,708,940
in Spain
Immigrant share of
12.2%
overall population
Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute, Municipal Register,
2010.
most consistently claim that immigrants make the
employment situation worse for native-born workers.
(See Chart 3.)
FRENCH DOUBT THAT IMMIGRANTS
FILL LABOR-MARKET GAPS
Since the beginning of the Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey, majorities in all countries have
agreed that immigrants generally help to fill jobs
where there are shortages of workers. Even in the
United Kingdom, where respondents are typically
skeptical of immigration’s impacts, 71% agree that
immigrants fill labor-market gaps. France, however, is
becoming increasingly skeptical of immigrants’ plug-
ging of labor-market gaps. In 2008, an overwhelming
majority (84%) of the French said that they agreed
that immigrants fill labor shortages. In 2009, 74% said
 COUNTRY PROFILE: FRANCE
Among the countries surveyed in Transatlantic
Trends: Immigration, France was one of the more
optimistic countries in terms of attitudes about
immigration in 2008 and 2009. In both 2008
and 2009, half of French respondents (50%) said
that immigration was more of an opportunity
for France, rather than a problem. Accordingly,
perceptions about immigrant groups were gener-
ally positive in the first two years of the survey.
In 2010, however, only 38% of the French said
that immigration is an opportunity for France,
and their perceptions of immigrants’ impacts on
culture, labor markets, and crime has become
more negative.
There have been a number of political develop-
ments in France that may account for this change.
A ban on face-covering veils for Muslim women
in public places was passed in 2010, and over
the past few years, the government has made it
easier to deport immigrants who threaten public
order through theft or other petty crime. These
laws and arguments about illegal residence were
the basis for the expulsion of many Romanian
and Bulgarian Roma over the summer. The
dismantling of Roma camps in France sparked
fierce debates about migration and human rights
throughout the European Union and beyond.
Amid these developments, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy was very vocal, ensuring that
these immigration-related issues were frequently
featured in the French media. This was especially
the same. From 2009 to 2010, the picture changed
dramatically. After a drop of 22 percentage points,
only 52% of the French believe that immigrants fill
jobs where there are shortages.
DUTCH AND BRITISH ACKNOWLEDGE
IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
North Americans, whose countries have benefitted
from immigrant entrepreneurs for decades, have
shown that they recognize the job-creating ability of
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true in the summer months immediately prior to
the TTI fieldwork.
Though the data from TTI do not necessarily
stem from these political developments, it was
clear that French respondents in 2010 had become
more skeptical about immigration. On the issue of
crime, for instance, only 31% of French respon-
dents thought that illegal immigrants increased
crime in 2009. By 2010, that number had increased
to a majority of the French (55%) linking illegal
immigration and crime rates. Even legal immi-
grants were perceived more negatively in France in
2010. From 2009 to 2010, the percentage of French
who said that legal immigrants are hard workers
fell 21 percentage points, from 74% to 53%. When
asked about culture, 58% of the French in 2010
thought that immigration enriches French culture,
down from 68% in 2009. Across questions in
the survey, the French were more negative about
immigration issues in 2010. This will be a trend to
watch in a country that was once among the most
optimistic in Europe.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
5,261,700
in France
Immigrant share of
8.4%
overall population
Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2008
such immigrants. In both 2009 and 2010, majorities
of Americans (58%) and Canadians (67%) agreed
that immigrants help create jobs as they set up new
businesses. In 2009, Italians (50%) were the only
Europeans who agreed. In 2010, Italians were no
longer as optimistic about immigrants’ job creating
ability – the proportion claiming that immigrants
create jobs with new businesses shifted to 44%. In
2010, however, there is a new plurality of British
respondents (48%) and a slight majority of Dutch
respondents (51%) who think that immigrants create
jobs by starting new businesses.
Labor-market VIEWS CORRELATED WITH
PERSONAL ECONOMIC FACTORS
Perception of whether immigrants take jobs away
from natives was correlated with other personal vari-
ables among TTI respondents. In Europe, the United
States, and Canada, respondents who thought there
were “very few available jobs” in their immediate area
were also more likely to say that immigrants take
jobs away than respondents who said that there were
“plenty of available jobs” or “some available jobs.”
Respondents who were unemployed themselves were
also more likely to see immigrants as a threat to jobs.
Among unemployed Europeans, 43% agreed that
immigrants take jobs away from natives, while the
overall average in Europe who said the same was 35%.
The economic crisis may also have had an effect on
attitudes about job competition. Among Europeans
whose household financial situation got worse over
the 12 months before the survey, 39% said that immi-
grants take jobs away from natives. This compares
to European respondents whose personal economic
situation stayed the same or got better, only 32% of
whom thought that immigrants take jobs. These find-
ings were consistent across European countries except
for in France and Italy, where there was no effect of
personal economic situation on attitudes. The most
striking difference, however, was found in the United
States, where 63% of those whose situation got worse
feared immigrant job competition. Of those whose
situation got better or stayed the same, only 49%
thought likewise. (See Chart 4.)

Chart 4:
Labor Market Competition and the Economy:
Those Saying “Immigrants Take Jobs Away from Native-Born”
70

Among respondents whose household financial

60 situation in the previous 12 months... 63
Got worse

50 Got better or
stayed the same 49

40
Percent

39
35
30 32
30

20

10

Canada European Average United States

Source: Q9.1, D3; see Chart Index

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 11
 COUNTRY PROFILE: ITALY
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration has shown that
Italians are among the most consistently skeptical
when it comes to immigration. Since 2008, over
50% of Italians have said that there are too many
immigrants in Italy, and over 80% have said that
they were worried about illegal immigration. In
2010, the perception of legal immigrants in Italy
also became more negative. In 2009, only 34% of
Italians thought that legal immigrants increase
crime in society, but in 2010 that figure rose to a
clear majority of Italians (56%). This number is
now on par with the percentage of Italians who
say that illegal immigrants increase crime (57%).
When considering specific segments of the
immigrant population, however, in some impor-
tant cases Italian attitudes were marked by lower
degrees of anxiety than other national samples.
In particular, Islam as such seemed to represent
less of a threat for Italians than for most other
Europeans. Thirty-seven percent of respondents
thought that Muslim immigrants are “inte-
grating well” or “very well” into Italian society, as
opposed to 25% of Germans or 21% of Spaniards.
Moreover, only 22% of Italian respondents
(against a 40% European average) believed that
children of Muslim immigrants are integrating
poorly into their society. Such comparatively
low degrees of preoccupation emerge also with
a more general question on the level of integra-
tion of children of immigrants as a whole: while
large shares of the French and German samples
believed that so-called second generation immi-
grants are “poorly” or “very poorly” integrated
(respectively 42% and 44% of the total in each
country), only 24% of Italians shared this view.
12 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
Though Italians are often skeptical of migra-
tion’s effects on society, there has long been a
recognition in Italian policy circles that there is
an economic demand for labor migration. With
the birth rate at just over 1.4 children per woman
and over 20% of the population over 65 years of
age, there are often not enough Italian workers
to fill available jobs in the services, agriculture,
and manufacturing sectors. Accordingly, the
government has issued hundreds of thousands
of visas for work purposes in the past few years.
The Italian public seems to assume that immi-
grants are complimentary in the labor market.
TTI has shown that Italians are among the least
concerned with job competition from immi-
grants: over two-thirds (69%) do not think that
immigrants take jobs away from Italians, and
three-fourths (76%) say that immigrants gener-
ally help to fill jobs where there are shortages
of workers. When thinking long-term, however,
Italians are unsure as to whether they want immi-
gration as a solution to shortages in the workforce.
A plurality of 49% would be against encouraging
immigration to Italy for employment purposes as
the population continues to age.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
4,235,059
in Italy
Immigrant share of
7%
overall population
Source: Isituto Nazionale di Statistica 2010, data for 2010
 Immigration

Immigration and Welfare

I n 2008 and 2009, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration

asked respondents in all countries whether they
supported giving full social benefits to legal immi-
grants and their families. In every country but the
United Kingdom, there was over 60% support for
giving legal immigrants the same social benefits as
citizens. Even in the U.K., 57% were in favor of this
policy in 2008 and 50% were in favor in 2009. Since
the question was worded in a very general way in the
first two years of the survey, without defining exactly
which “social benefits” immigrants would receive,
TTI 2010 asked respondents more pointed questions
about benefits for migrants.
CONTINENTAL EUROPE FAVORS HEALTHCARE
COVERAGE FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS
In continental Europe, where public healthcare is the
norm, respondents were in favor of granting both
legal and illegal immigrants access to both emer-
gency and general healthcare. When asked whether
emergency healthcare should be provided to only
citizens, citizens and legal immigrants, or citizens
and all immigrants (both legal and illegal), a majority
in Germany (83%), the Netherlands (81%), France
(77%), and Spain (71%) supported the policy of
making emergency healthcare available to all citizens
and all immigrants, regardless of their legal status.

Chart 5:
Access to State-Sponsored Healthcare Should be Available to…
90
Citizens only
80
Citizens and all
70 legal immigrants
Citizens and all immigrants,
both legal and illegal
60 64
58 58 60
56
50 53
Percent

50
40 42
38 38 38
36
30
30
20 25
21

10

6 33 3
0 5 1 1 4

United Kingdom Canada Spain Germany Netherlands Italy France

Source: Q14b.3; see Chart Index

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 13
Similarly, continental Europeans were also in favor of
giving general “access to healthcare” to both legal and
illegal immigrants. Eighty-three percent of Germans,
64% of the French, 60% of Italians, 58% of the Dutch,
and 56% of the Spanish supported making healthcare
access available to national citizens, as well as legal
and illegal immigrants. (See Chart 5.)
BRITISH WOULD EXCLUDE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
FROM GENERAL HEALTHCARE, SOCIAL HOUSING
A plurality (45%) of British respondents in 2010
thought that illegal immigrants, along with legal
immigrants and citizens, should have access to
emergency healthcare. It is clear that the British
differentiate between emergency and general health-
care, however, as 53% thought that only citizens and
legal immigrants should have access to healthcare
more generally. (See Chart 5.) In a similar vein, a
majority of British respondents also thought that the
state benefit of social housing should be reserved for
citizens and legal immigrants only.
NORTH AMERICANS AND BRITISH PREFER
RESTRICTIONS ON SCHOOLING FOR ILLEGAL
IMMIGRANTS
When asked about access to public or state schools,
British (60%), Canadian (59%), and American (50%)
respondents preferred to give access to citizens and
14 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
legal immigrants only, thereby excluding illegal
immigrants. Twenty-two percent of British respon-
dents even thought that legal immigrants should not
have access to state schools. The Netherlands, Italy,
Germany, and Spain were all fairly split on whether
legal immigrants or all immigrants should have
schooling access, and in France, a large majority was
in favor of giving both legal and illegal immigrants
access to public schools. (See Chart 6.)
MAJORITIES IN ALL COUNTRIES THINK
IMMIGRANTS ARE FISCAL BURDEN
Overall, large majorities in all countries polled
believed that immigrants benefit more from health
and welfare services than they contribute in taxes.
Spain and the United States had the highest propor-
tion agreeing with this statement (both 67%),
followed by France, Germany, and the U.K. (all 60%),
Italy (51%), and Canada (50%). The Netherlands was
the country with the greatest split on this question; a
41% plurality of the Dutch believed that immigrants
are a fiscal drain, 24% thought that they are a fiscal
benefit, and 25% responded that they did not know
immigrants’ fiscal impact.
 Chart 6:
Access to Public Schools Should be Available to…
80

Citizens only
70
Citizens and all
legal immigrants
60 Citizens and all immigrants, 62
60 59 both legal and illegal
50
52 51
50 49
48 48
46 46
Percent

40 42

30 33 33 33

20 22
17
15
10

6 2
0 4 1 4 4
United United Canada Netherlands Italy Germany Spain France
Kingdom States
Source: Q14.1; see Chart Index

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 15
 Immigration

Immigration and the Political Arena

T he complex nature of immigration often makes

governance difficult. In Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration, respondents were asked to evaluate their
governments in terms of their management of immi-
gration and, as a separate policy issue, immigrant
integration. Additionally, respondents were asked to
give their preferences for immigration policymaking:
Europeans were asked about European Union gover-
nance over immigration, and North Americans were
asked whether federal or state/provincial govern-
ments should have more control over policy.
EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES
UNHAPPY WITH IMMIGRATION POLICIES
There was general agreement among Europeans and
Americans polled that their governments were not
doing a good job in managing immigration. In the
United States, a full 73% of respondents thought
the government was doing a poor or very poor job
at it. Similarly, the United Kingdom and Italy had
70% majorities who disapproved of the immigra-
tion management steps their governments had
taken. Majorities in Spain (61%), France (58%),
and Germany (57%) shared a negative view of their
governments’ immigration management.

Chart 7:
Approval of Governments...
60

In general, over the previous

six months
54
50 On immigration
51
management
48 48
On integrating immigrants
40 43
39
37 38 37
34 35
Percent

30
31 31 31
29 29 30
26
24 25
20 23 23
19

10
11

Canada United United France Germany Spain Italy Netherlands

Kingdom States
Source: QD2, Q17, Q20; see Chart Index

16 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
In order to gauge whether these poor ratings were
due to a general government disapproval, TTI asked
respondents to rate how their governments were
doing more generally. Though government approval
levels tended to match views on immigration manage-
ment in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, the other
countries had major differences in opinion between
the two questions. For example, 87% of Dutch respon-
dents thought that their government was doing a poor
job in general, but only 54% thought that the govern-
ment was doing a poor job of managing immigration.
Moving in the opposite direction, a minority (45%) of
the British disapproved of the government in general,
while a full 70% disapproved of the government’s
immigration management. American respondents are
also more pessimistic about their immigration poli-
cies, as 73% disapproved of immigration management
while only 59% disapproved of the government in
general. (See Chart 7.)
POOR GOVERNMENT RATINGS
ALSO ON INTEGRATION MEASURES
Overall, respondents in Europe and in the United
States also felt that their governments were doing a
poor or a very poor job at integrating immigrants
into national society. Sixty percent of Europeans, on
average, and 62% of Americans gave their govern-
ments bad marks. The Dutch were the most dissatis-
fied, with 78% claiming that the government was
doing a poor job at integration. Canadians, on the
other hand, were again outliers. Fifty-one percent of
them said that the Canadian government was doing
either a good or very good job at integrating New
Canadians.
Comparing these sentiments to general government
approval ratings, respondents in Germany and Spain
were more positive about integration efforts. Though
the general government approval in those coun-
tries was very low (only 31% and 29%, respectively,
thought that the government had been doing a good
job over the preceding six months), on integration,
only 38% of the Germans and 43% of the Spanish
thought their government was doing a good job, a
difference of 14 and 7 percentage points, respectively.
The United Kingdom was also a country in which
integration policy was perceived quite differently,
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 17
but in the opposite direction: respondents were 19
percentage points more likely to say that the govern-
ment was doing a good job in general (48%) than on
integrating migrants (29%). (See Chart 7.)
APPROVAL RATINGS VARY
BY POLITICAL AFFILIATION
Examining individuals’ views on immigration
management according to political affiliation yielded
interesting results in this year’s Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration. Respondents in Europe were asked to
identify their political orientation along a left-center-
right scale, and those in the United States and Canada
were asked to self-identify as liberal, moderate, or
conservative. In France, 78% of those identifying as
left believed the government was doing a poor job on
immigration management, and 47% on the right gave
the government good marks. A majority of Germans
on the political left believed the government was doing
a poor job (62%) and a slight majority of those on
the political right shared this sentiment (50%). In the
Netherlands, 64% on the political right believed that
the government was doing a poor job in this regard and
a plurality on the left (47%) shared this sentiment.
SETTING IMMIGRATION LEVELS: NOT AN EU JOB
In the 2010 Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey,
European respondents were asked whether national
governments or the European Union should dictate
the number of immigrants allowed into their country
each year. A majority of Europeans (62%) felt such
decisions should be made on the national, rather than
the EU level. Respondents in the United Kingdom
showed the strongest support for national gover-
nance, with 85% saying that the British government
should make decisions about immigration numbers.
Germany and the Netherlands agreed, with 68% and
66%, respectively, saying that their national govern-
ments should make those decisions. Italy was the
only European country that might be willing to cede
such responsibilities to the EU, as a plurality (47%)
of Italians answered that the EU should decide how
many immigrants are admitted to Italy and 45%
preferred that the Italian government dictate those
policies. (See Chart 8.)
NORTH AMERICANS FAVOR FEDERAL
CONTROL on KEY ISSUES
In the 2010 Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey,
respondents in Canada and the United States were
polled on the role federal and local officials should
play in the formation and enforcement of immigra-
tion policy. In Canada, 56% of those polled believed
primary responsibility for determining who is
admitted to Canada should rest with federal authori-
ties, whereas a considerable minority (38%) answered
that such decisions should be made by provincial or
local authorities. (See Chart 9.) Likewise, respondents
in the United States were asked whether the federal
government or state and local officials should have
primary responsibility for enforcing immigration
laws. At a time when select states and municipali-
ties are taking steps to implement local immigration
policies, the views of Americans were somewhat split.
Though 44% thought that state or local authorities
should have primary responsibility for enforcement of
immigration policies, more (50%) believed the federal
government should take the lead. (See Chart 10.)
IMMIGRATION CONTINUES TO SWAY VOTES
In the first year of the Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey, 50% of Europeans and 56% of
Americans believed that a political party’s agenda
would influence their vote in the next election. Such
sentiments have changed slightly since 2008, however.
In 2010, only 45% of Europeans, on average, said that
their votes would be affected by candidates’ immigra-
tion agendas. While the issue seems to have declined
in political salience in continental Europe, British
respondents consistently say that immigration policy
will affect their vote. A full 63% made this claim in
2010. Of all countries surveyed, the United States has
seen the largest change in the proportion of respon-
dents who said that candidates’ agendas on immigra-
tion will affect their vote. In 2008, 56% said that it
was a salient issue for their voting decision. By 2010,
that number had risen to 67% of Americans polled.
Americans have given consistently poor ratings of
their government’s immigration management, and it
seems that they will take into account such criticism
when making their own political decisions.

Chart 8:
Who Should Decide How Many Immigrants Are
Admitted to your Country?
90

80 National Government 85

70 European Union

68
66
60
60
50
Percent

51
47
40 45
43

30 34
30
27
20

10 12

Italy France Spain Netherlands Germany United Kingdom

Source: Q19; see Chart Index

18 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
 COUNTRY PROFILE: UNITED KINGDOM
The U.K.’s general elections in May 2010 resulted
in a coalition government between David
Cameron’s Conservatives and Nick Clegg’s
Liberal Democrats. With the goal of reducing
net migration from the hundreds of thousands
to the tens of thousands, the coalition govern-
ment introduced a temporary cap on the number
of highly skilled immigrants from outside the
EU, has plans to implement stricter controls on
foreign students, and would like to restrict the
number of family visas available. The temporary
cap will reduce the number of skilled migrant
visas by 1,300 to a total of 24,100, and a perma-
nent cap will be set in place by April 2011.
agreed that immigrants take jobs away from the
native-born, and 48% thought immigration nega-
tively affects British culture. Support for allowing
more legal immigration to the U.K. as a measure
to reduce illegal immigration has steadily lost
support since 2008. In the 2010 survey, 70% of
British respondents said that the British govern-
ment had been doing a poor or very poor job at
managing migration. Whether this sentiment
reflects discontent with policies of the outgoing
Labour party or the current Coalition govern-
ment remains to be seen.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS

In Transatlantic Trends: Immigration, the British Immigrant population

6,647,000
public has been consistently skeptical of immi- in the United Kingdom
gration and supportive of more restrictive Immigrant share of
10.8%
measures. For instance, 65% viewed immigration overall population
as more of a problem than an opportunity, 58% Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2008

Chart 9: Chart 10:

Canada: Responsibility for United States: Responsibility for
Selecting Labor Migrants Should Enforcing Immigration Laws
Fall to... Should Rest with...
60 60

56
50 50
50

44
40 40
38
Percent
Percent

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
Provincial or Federal Government State or Local Federal Government
Local Authorities Authorities
Source: Q18; see Chart Index Source: Q18; see Chart Index

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 19
 COUNTRY PROFILE: Canada
In Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010,
respondents were asked to assess their govern-
ment’s management of immigration, an often
contentious topic. Of all the countries polled,
Canadian respondents were the most supportive
of the steps their government had taken to
manage immigration. A plurality (48%) of
Canadians thought that the government had
been doing a good or a very good job in this area,
by far the highest level of support in the survey.
A majority (56%) of Canadians also supported
federal, rather than provincial, responsibility in
deciding who should be able to immigrate to
Canada for work.
However, cooperation between the federal and
provincial governments in managing immigra-
tion has a long-standing history in Canada. For
years, the Provincial Nomination Program and a
special agreement with the province of Quebec
has allowed provinces to nominate specific
immigrants for entry into Canada. New federal
immigration policies continue to take into
account provincial needs. The Action Plan for
Faster Immigration, with a focus on making the
immigration system more responsive to Canada’s
20 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
labor-market needs, also recognizes the unique
skill needs of specific provinces. In order to make
the process of obtaining the most-skilled and
best-educated workforce more efficient, Canada
introduced the Pan-Canadian Framework for
the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign
Qualifications. Under the new framework,
governments across Canada work to ensure
that foreign qualifications and credentials are
assessed in a fair and timely manner. This will
allow foreign workers to join the labor market as
soon as possible, thereby helping them to attain
their professional potential in Canada and avoid
“brain waste.” Native Canadians, 67% of whom
believe that immigrants help create jobs as they
set up new businesses, will likely continue to
benefit from the entrepreneurial spirit of New
Canadians.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
6,471,900
in Canada
Immigrant share of
20.2%
overall population
Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2008
 Immigration
Legal and Illegal Immigration: Perceptions and Policy Alternatives
C rafting legal immigration schemes and control-
ling illegal immigration are two of the biggest
challenges facing migrant-receiving countries. To
design responsible legal immigration and enforce-
ment policies, it is necessary for governments to
understand public perception of legal and illegal
immigrants. The Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
survey has differentiated questions about the two
groups of immigrants and their effects on labor
markets, crime rates, and social services. The survey
also asked respondents about their preferences for
legal immigration schemes and enforcement methods
to deal with the problem of illegal immigration.
MOST IMMIGRANTS: LEGAL OR ILLEGAL?
Majorities in all countries surveyed claimed that they
were “worried about illegal immigration” but “not
worried about legal immigration.” In Europe, for
instance, an average of 67% was worried about illegal
immigration, while 72% were not worried about legal
immigration. It is clear from the data, however, that
those regions more affected by illegal immigration,
including the United States and Southern Europe,
have different perceptions of the makeup of their
immigrant populations. These countries were the
only ones with majorities saying that more immi-
grants were in their countries illegally than legally. In
Southern Europe, Italy had 65% and Spain had 50%
claiming that most immigrants were illegal, while the
United States had 58% answering likewise.
WORSENING PERCEPTION OF LEGAL
IMMIGRANTS’ Labor-market IMPACTS
Since TTI began asking questions about legal versus
illegal immigrants, respondents in all countries have
expressed more positive attitudes about legal immi-
grants. However, there were changes from 2009 to
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 21
2010 that suggest worsening perceptions of legal
immigrants’ labor-market impacts. While trends were
stable in the other countries surveyed, Mediterranean
countries were less likely in 2010 to agree that legal
immigrants are hard workers. The proportion of
Spanish respondents who thought that such immi-
grants work hard fell from 64% to 58%, while Italy
(75% to 60%) and France (74% to 53%) saw even
more dramatic drops year-on-year. Similarly, signifi-
cantly fewer Italians and French in 2010 thought that
legal immigrants fill labor shortages. Those agreeing
that legal immigrants help to fill the jobs that natives
do not want fell from 81% to 73% in Italy and from
74% to 54% in France.
LEGAL IMMIGRANTS INCREASINGLY
TIED TO CRIME in some countries
From 2009 to 2010, there were also notable changes
in the way in which legal immigrants were viewed
in several countries. There were big jumps in the
proportion of respondents in the United States,
France, and Italy who indicated that legal immi-
grants increase crime in society. The percentage of
French who thought that legal immigrants increase
crime jumped from 24% in 2009 to 40% in 2010, and
the percentage of Italians who said the same went
up from 34% in 2009 to a majority of 56% in 2010.
Over the same period, Dutch respondents moved in
the other direction; 54% said that legal immigrants
increase crime in 2009, whereas in 2010 only a
minority (45%) said likewise. (See Chart 11.)
PERMANENT LABOR MIGRATION STILL
POPULAR, BUT OFTEN DEPENDS
ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES
Though perceptions of legal immigrants’ labor-
market impacts are worsening, labor migration

Legal Immigrants Increase Crime in Society
60
2009 2010
50
40
Percent Agreeing
35
30
29 29
25
20 23
10
Canada Spain United
States
policy preferences are fairly stable. In the three years
that Transatlantic Trends: Immigration has been
asking respondents whether they favor permanent or
temporary labor migration to their countries, opinion
has remained the same. In all countries, respondents
favor giving legal labor migrants the opportunity to
stay permanently in their countries. This preference is
most striking in Canada, where 80% favor permanent
over temporary migration.
Only in Europe has support for permanent labor
migration weakened slightly. Of the five European
countries that have been polled since 2008, 67% on
average favored permanent labor migration in the
first year of the survey. In 2009, that figure slipped
very slightly, to 65%; in 2010, it dropped again to
62%. Rather than favoring temporary labor migra-
tion, however, respondents were more likely in 2010
to say that the decision for permanent versus tempo-
rary migration “depends on the circumstances.” This
spontaneous answer was chosen by 10% of European
respondents in 2010, compared with 3% in both
22 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
Chart 11:
56
54
47 46
45
40
36
33 34
32
24
United France Netherlands Germany Italy
Kingdom
Source: Q7a.2; see Chart Index
Canada and the United States. It seems that Europeans,
in particular, are beginning to lean toward differentia-
tion of labor migration policies. (See Chart 12.)
JOB OFFERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT
THAN EDUCATIONAL LEVELS
TTI in 2010 asked respondents to weigh in on a
debate about labor immigration to see if they favored
labor market- or human capital-driven migration
schemes. The results indicate that labor-market
needs are more compelling than education levels.
Majorities or pluralities in all countries surveyed
think that their governments should give preference
to immigrants with a job offer, rather than those
with a higher education. The question was framed
as a trade-off between admitting highly educated
immigrants with no job offer and immigrants with a
lower level of education who have a job waiting for
them in the country. Opinion was strongest in Spain
(74%), France (66%), the Netherlands (63%), and the
U.K. (58%) that immediate job placement was more
important than high educational levels. Germany and
 Chart 12:
Legal Immigrants Coming for Work Should Be Admitted…
90

80 Permanently
80
Temporarily
70
Depends on the
circumstances 67
60
62

50
Percent

40

30

26 27
20

10 14
10
3 3
0

European Average United States Canada

Source: Q11; see Chart Index

the United States were the most split, with a plurality
of 47% in both countries favoring immigrants with
job offers. In Germany, however, over one-third
(36%) favored immigrants with high educational
levels. Given Germany’s history of importing low-
skilled labor, it seems that many Germans would
prefer taking a different route in the future.
MORE NEGATIVE VIEWS OF LEGAL
IMMIGRANTS IN ITALY
In contrast to the Transatlantic Trends: Immigration
results from 2009, Italians in 2010 had a much more
favorable view of illegal immigrants in their country.
Fewer Italians claimed that illegal immigrants increase
crime in Italian society, as the number tying illegal
immigrants to crime dropped from 77% in 2009 to
55% in 2010. Instead, more said that illegal immigrants
are hard workers (from 44% in 2009 to a majority of
56% in 2010) and nearly three-quarters (74%) said
that illegal immigrants help to fill the jobs that Italians
do not want. This proportion is up from 69% in 2009.
Though illegal immigrants are still perceived slightly
more negatively than are legal immigrants in Italy, the
gap in perception between these two groups has been
cut dramatically. (See Chart 13.)
EXPLOITATION IN THE WORKFORCE MORE
LIKELY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
In all countries surveyed, large majorities agreed that
illegal immigrants are often exploited in the work-
force. The European average was 78% in agreement,
while Americans (73%) and Canadians (76%) also
agreed that illegal immigrants were vulnerable. When
asked about legal immigrants being exploited in the
workforce, however, responses among the countries
surveyed was more mixed. A plurality of Germans
(48%) and Dutch (46%) said that they disagreed that
legal immigrants are often exploited in the workforce.
It is notable that the perception gap between legal and
illegal immigrants was very narrow on this indicator
in Italy, where 84% said that illegal immigrants face
exploitation in the workplace and 79% thought that
legal immigrants are also vulnerable. By contrast,
Germans sharply distinguished the two groups. They

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 23
 Chart 13:
Less Differentiation between Legal and Illegal Immigrants in Italy
90
Legal immigrants 84
80
Illegal immigrants 79 78
70

60
61
59 59
56 57
50
Percent

47
40 45
42
40
30

20

10

Are a Burden on Increase Crime Are Exploited Are a Burden on Increase Crime Are Exploited
Social Services in Society in the Workplace Social Services in Society in the Workplace
Italy European Average
Source: Q7a.1, Q7a.2, Q7a.5, Q7b.1, Q7b.2, Q7b.5; see Chart Index

perceived exploitation of illegal immigrants (80%)
much more than legal immigrants (45%), a gap of 35%.
LEGALIZATION OR RETURN
FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?
Since 2008, TTI has asked respondents in Europe and
North America about their preference for dealing
with immigrants who are living in their countries
illegally. Presented with the options of requiring such
immigrants to return to their country of origin or
giving them the opportunity to obtain legal status,
respondents are often split. In the United States, for
instance, 47% want illegal immigrants to be made
to return home, while 45% would prefer to legalize
them. Since the beginning of the survey, there has
never been an outright majority of Americans
favoring either option. (See Chart 14.)
In Europe, half of Germans (50%) want to give illegal
immigrants legal status, but the British (67%), Italians
(55%), and Spanish (49%) want their illegal immi-
grant populations to leave the country. The results in
France and the Netherlands are inconclusive as 19%
and 17%, respectively, spontaneously responded that
the decision should depend on the circumstances.
STRONG SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL CONTROLS
ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The countries in TTI that most struggle with illegal
immigration are the United States, the United
Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. When respondents in
these countries were asked about various poli-
cies designed to reduce illegal immigration, large
majorities were in favor of all of them. For instance,
reinforcing border controls was the most-supported
policy option with at least 85% expressing their favor
for the policy in all four countries. Notably, 66% of
Americans, 73% of the British, 65% of Italians, and
58% of the Spanish strongly supported this policy.
Imposing tougher penalties on employers who hire
illegal immigrants was also a popular policy, with
over 70% support in all four countries.

24 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
 Chart 14:
Constant Split: Illegal Immigrants in the United States Should Be…
80

Required to Return
70
Given Legal Status
60

50
49
Percent

48 47
40 44 45
43

30

20

10

2008 2009 2010

Source: Q12; see Chart Index

COUNTRY PROFILE: UNITED STATES

When Americans were asked whether they thought
most immigrants in the United States were present
legally or illegally, 58% of Americans said that most
were illegal. The perception that most immigrants
in America are illegal has, in fact, been gaining in
popularity since the beginning of the Transatlantic
Trends: Immigration survey, from 48% in 2008,
to 51% in 2009 and finally 58% in 2010. Though
illegal immigrants comprise less than one-third of
the immigrant population in the United States, the
perception of widespread immigrant illegality has
continued to gain momentum among the American
public.
million to be spent on the project. While a drop has
occurred in the number of illegal immigrants due
to the recession and lack of available jobs, as well as
this stricter border enforcement, there has been a
rise in the contentious debate over immigration and
rhetoric surrounding illegal immigrants. Arizona’s
controversial SB1070 law, which made illegal immi-
gration a state as well as federal crime in Arizona,
called national attention to the debate in 2009. The
media attention paid to such developments could
be a reason for the increasingly skewed vision that
Americans have of their immigrant population.

IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
In the past five years, much of the political
discourse about immigration issues has focused Immigrant population
41,799,500
on securing the United States’ southern border in the United States
with Mexico. In 2010, President Obama sent an Immigrant share of
13.7%
additional 1,200 National Guard troops to secure overall population
the border and mandated that an additional $500 Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2008

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 25
 Chart 15:
Support for More Avenues of Legal Immigration
as an Illegal Immigration Reduction Measure
90

80 2008
79
2009 75
70
71 72 72
2010
60
61 60
58 57
Percent

50
48
40
39
30

20

10

United Kingdom United States Spain Italy

Source: Q13a.4; see Chart Index

BRITISH DO NOT SUPPORT MORE
LEGAL AVENUES FOR IMMIGRATION
One policy option that could reduce illegal immigration
to a given country is to make it easier for immigrants
to enter the country legally to work and study. When
asked about this option, Italians (72%), Spanish (71%),
and Americans (57%) were in favor. By contrast, British
respondents were opposed to this policy. A full 58%
would not support easier routes of legal immigration to
the United Kingdom. (See Chart 15.)

26 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
 Immigration
Immigrant Integration, Belonging, and Entitlements
I n Europe, the integration of immigrants into
mainstream society has been a hot political topic.
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration asked respondents
in all countries to evaluate their governments’ policies
on integration, and results suggest that many govern-
ments are not seen to be doing enough. Respondents
in 2010 were also asked to rate the integration of
various groups, including Muslim and Hispanic
immigrants in the United States, as well as the inte-
gration of the children of immigrants.
LESS OPTIMISM ABOUT IMMIGRATION’S
CULTURAL BENEFITS
When asked whether immigration enriches their
country’s culture with new customs and ideas or nega-
tively affects their national culture, most countries
had a positive view of immigration’s cultural effects
in 2009 and 2010. The exception was the United
Kingdom, where a plurality of 48% in 2010 said
that immigration negatively affects British culture.
Though the other countries in the survey continue
to have a positive opinion of immigration’s cultural
effects, they are less positive in 2010 than in 2009.
In the United States and Canada, for instance, 65%
in both countries said that immigration was positive
for culture in 2009. In 2010, both countries had 60%
saying the same. Similar drops were seen in France
(68% to 58%), Spain (61% to 55%), and Italy (54%
to a plurality of 49%). Though there are less positive
attitudes elsewhere, a consistent 60% of Germans
thought that immigration enriches German culture in
both 2009 and 2010.
PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF
IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
Generally speaking, Europeans had fairly negative
views of the state of immigrant integration in their
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 27
countries. Spain was the only country in Europe
where a slight majority (54%) felt that immigrants
are integrating well. On the other hand, half of the
Italians (50%) and more than half of the French
(54%), Germans (53%), and British (52%) felt that
immigrants were integrating poorly or very poorly
into society. The Dutch were the most pessimistic,
with 60% saying that immigrants were integrating
poorly into Dutch society. On the other side of the
Atlantic, the picture was more optimistic. Fifty-nine
percent of Americans and 65% of Canadians felt that
their immigrants were integrating well.
VIEWS OF MUSLIM INTEGRATION MORE
POSITIVE IN NORTH AMERICA
In 2010, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration asked
respondents to rate the integration of Muslim immi-
grants into their societies. Though no country had
an outright majority saying that Muslim immigrants
were integrating well, Canadians were split evenly,
with 45% believing Muslim immigrants were inte-
grating well and 44% thinking they were integrating
poorly. Americans were the most optimistic about
Muslim integration — a plurality of 45% thought
these immigrants were integrating well, while 40%
said that they were not. A further 14% claimed that
they did not know, perhaps due to comparatively low
numbers of Muslim immigrants to the United States.
In Europe, negative views about Muslim integra-
tion were especially common in Spain and Germany,
where large majorities said that Muslims were
integrating poorly (70% and 67%, respectively). They
were followed by the Dutch (56%), the British (53%),
the French (51%), and a plurality of Italians (49%)
who also thought that Muslim immigrants were inte-
grating poorly.
SPANISH AND GERMANS PESSIMISTIC ABOUT
MUSLIM INTEGRATION
Comparing the perceptions of immigrant integra-
tion in general versus the integration of Muslims
specifically, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and, to
a lesser extent, the United Kingdom, had numbers
that were very similar. It seems that in those coun-
tries, there was not a large distinction made by the
public between immigrants in general and Muslims
in regards to integration. In Spain, Canada, Germany,
and the United States, however, it was clear that there
are more pessimistic views of Muslim integration.
In Spain and Germany, for instance, there were 33
and 16 percentage point differences, respectively,
in respondents saying that Muslim immigrants are
COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY
When asked whether Germany is now a country
of immigration, the overwhelming majority of
Germans (78%) agreed in TTI 2010 that it is. Over
the past few months, Germany has witnessed a
re-emergence of immigration and integration
issues in national political debates. Set in motion
by Social Democrat and former Bundesbank
Board Member Thilo Sarrazin, the German
public has been wrapped up in a active discus-
sion about who should be admitted to the country
and whether the integration of immigrants,
and second-generation Muslim immigrants in
particular, has been successful.
Several issues that are salient in the public debate
were covered in the 2010 Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey. For instance, Germans
thought that immigrants are not well integrated
into Germany society. Of all countries surveyed,
Germans were among the least satisfied with
immigrant integration; 53% answered that
immigrants are integrating poorly or very poorly
into German society. When asked specifically
about the integration of Muslim immigrants,
even larger numbers were pessimistic. A majority
of 67% of Germans thought that Muslim immi-
grants are not integrating well into German
28 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
integrating well into society when compared to those
thinking immigrants in general are integrating well.
(See Chart 16.)
HISPANIC INTEGRATION SEEN EQUALLY
IN UNITED STATES
While Americans viewed Muslim integration more
negatively than immigrant integration in general,
Americans also think that Hispanic immigrants
are integrating better. Generally speaking, 59% of
Americans thought that immigrants are integrating
well into American society, while only 45% of them
said the same of Muslim integration. Hispanic inte-
gration, however, was seen more positively, as nearly
two-thirds of Americans (65%) said that Hispanic
society, and 57% think that the children of
Muslim immigrants are also not well integrated.
Language acquisition, in particular, has been
a large part of the German debate about inte-
gration, and TTI data showed that a plurality
of Germans (49%) thought that knowing the
German language was the most important
precondition to acquiring German citizenship.
Though much of the political debate has been
about immigrants integrating and accepting the
Leitcultur, or leading culture, of Germany, it was
also clear from the 2010 Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey that Germans are widely
dissatisfied with the way that the government is
handling integration policy. A majority of 56%
think that the government has been doing a poor
or very poor job in integrating migrants into
German society, showing that there is improve-
ment to be made on many fronts.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
10,620,774
in Germany
Immigrant share of
12.9%
overall population
Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2003
 Chart 16:
Integration of Muslim Immigrants Seen
Differently in Some Countries
70

Immigrants in general are integrating well 65

60
Muslim immigrants are integrating well 59

50 54

44 45 45 45
40 43
41
Percent

36 36 37 37 37
30

25
20
21

10

Netherlands Italy Germany United France Spain United Canada

Kingdom States
Source: Q28a, Q28b; see Chart Index

immigrants were integrating well. Americans were
also asked to rate the integration of the children of
Hispanic immigrants in the United States. Overall, the
response was very positive; a full 78% of Americans
thought they were integrating well. Over one-third
(36%) said that second-generation Hispanics were
integrating very well. This perception is in line with
the general perception of second-generation inte-
gration in the United States and indicates that the
perceived integration of America’s largest immigrant
group is largely positive. (See Chart 17.)
MORE POSITIVE VIEWS OF SECOND-
GENERATION INTEGRATION
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration asked the public how
they perceived the integration of second-generation
immigrants in 2010. The children of immigrants born
in the respondents’ countries were generally seen as
better integrated than first-generation immigrants.
Sixty-one percent of Europeans, on average, thought
that the children born to immigrants in their countries
were very well or well integrated. The Spanish were the
most likely Europeans to see the children of immi-
grants as well integrated (78%), followed by the British
(68%), Dutch (66%), Italians (65%), French (54%), and
the Germans (50%). North Americans were even more
positive in their views of second-generation integra-
tion. An overwhelming 87% of Canadians and 79% of
Americans said that the children of immigrants born in
Canada and the United States, respectively, were well or
very well integrated.
Second-generation MUSLIMS GENERALLY
PERCEIVED TO BE INTEGRATING WELL
Overall, the perception of second-generation Muslim
integration was positive in most countries, as
Canadians (66%), Americans (62%), Italians (60%),
the British (59%), and the French (50%) thought that
the children of Muslim immigrants were integrating
well into society. The exceptions were in Spain and
Germany, where only 42% and 36%, respectively,
thought that Muslim immigrants’ children were
integrating well. While the Spanish were fairly split, a
clear majority of Germans thought that second-gener-

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 29
 Chart 17:
American Perception of Hispanic Integration
on Par with Immigrant Integration in General
90

80 Immigrants in general
are integrating well
79 78
Hispanic immigrants
70 are integrating well

60 65
59
50
Percent

40

30

20

10

First Generation Integrating Well Second Generation Integrating Well

Source: Q28b, Q28c, Q29b, Q29c; see Chart Index

Chart 18:
General Perception of Successful Second-Generation Integration
100

90 Children of immigrants
are integrating well
87
80 Children of Muslim immigrants
are integrating well 79
78
70

66 68 66
60 65
62
60 59
Percent

50 56
54
50 50
40
42
36
30

20

10

Netherlands United
United
Germany France Italy Spain Canada
Kingdom States
Source: Q29a. Q29b; see Chart Index

30 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
 Chart 19:
The Most Important Precondition to Obtaining Citizenship
80

Sharing cultural values

70
70
Speaking the national language(s)
60 Respecting political 63
institutions and laws
50 53
49
47
Percent

40
37 37 37
34 35
30 33 32
27
25 24
20
19
17
14 15
10 13 12
8
6 6
0

Netherlands United United Germany Canada France Spain Italy

Kingdom States
Source: Q10a; see Chart Index

ation Muslims were integrating poorly or very poorly.
(See Chart 18.)
CITIZENSHIP PRECONDITIONS
VARY BY COUNTRY
In 2010, TTI asked the public to name the most impor-
tant precondition for obtaining citizenship in their
country. Among the options — being able to speak
the national language(s), respecting national political
institutions and laws, having lived in the country for
most of one’s life, and sharing national cultural values
— there were striking differences among the countries
surveyed. Respondents in Italy (70%), Spain (63%),
and France (53%) thought it important that would-be
citizens should respect their countries’ political institu-
tions and laws, while only 6% in both Italy and Spain
thought that language fluency was the most important
precondition for citizenship. It seems that in Spain and
Italy, in particular, civic integration is the most impor-
tant factor for citizenship acquisition. By contrast,
a full 49% of Germans thought that being able to
speak German is the most important precondition for
becoming a German citizen. In the Netherlands, 37%
said that speaking Dutch was important, but a further
one-third of respondents (33%) thought that sharing
Dutch cultural values was the most important factor
for citizenship. Respondents in none of the countries
surveyed thought that living in the country for most of
one’s life was the most important precondition for an
immigrant to obtain citizenship. (See Chart 19.)

T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 31
 Chart 20:
Legal Immigrants Should Have the Right to Vote in Local Elections
60

2009
50 52 53
2010

45
40 43

36 37
Percent

30

20

10

United States Canada European Average

Source: Q22; see Chart Index

NON-CITIZEN VOTING RIGHTS FIND only citizens should be able to vote in local elections.
SUPPORT IN EUROPE The U.K. and Canada each had a slight majority of
On the question of whether legal immigrants or 51% saying that only citizens should have the vote,
only citizens should have the right to vote in local while a clear majority (62%) of Americans thought
government elections, Spain (62%), France (58%), the that only American citizens should vote in local
Netherlands (56%), and Italy (52%) all have majori- government elections. Overall, it is evident that giving
ties who support giving the vote to legal immigrants. local voting rights to migrants is more popular in
Germans, however, were split, with 48% supporting Europe. (See Chart 20.)
legal immigrant voting rights, while 49% think that

32 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
 COUNTRY PROFILE: THE NETHERLANDS
Along with other European countries, the
Netherlands has witnessed a growing skepticism
toward immigration and a shift toward more
restrictive immigration policies. In the June 2010
election, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom ran
on an anti-immigrant and anti-Islam agenda.
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010 found
that the Dutch public was very critical about how
the government has handled integration issues:
an overwhelming majority (78%) of the Dutch
thought that the government has done a poor
or very poor job in integrating immigrants into
Dutch society, the poorest government rating for
integration among all countries surveyed.
Though Wilders’ rhetoric has brought the issue
of Muslim integration to the fore, Transatlantic
Trends: Immigration 2010 showed that Dutch
respondents do not differentiate greatly between
Muslim immigrants and immigrants in general
in terms of integration. In fact, slightly more
Dutch respondents thought that immigrants in
general were integrating poorly (60%) compared
to Muslim immigrants (56%).
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 33
It is clear, though, that the Dutch viewed cultural
integration as important. Other countries in
the survey cited language acquisition or respect
for political institutions and laws as the most
important preconditions to obtaining citizenship,
but the Netherlands was an outlier. Thirty-seven
percent cited language as the most important,
followed quickly by one-third (33%) of the Dutch
saying that sharing cultural values was the most
important precondition for citizenship. This
support for sharing cultural values was by far the
highest in the survey and suggests that cultural
adaptation is a top priority for full immigrant
integration into Dutch society.
IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
Immigrant population
1,793,700
in the Netherlands
Immigrant share of
10.9%
overall population
Source: OECD International Migration Outlook 2010, data for 2008
 Immigration
Conclusion
T he third year of the Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey showed some important
changes and yielded results that speak to a number
of national debates in the countries surveyed. In
analyzing the results, a few overall findings should be
of particular interest to policymakers.
Perception of immigration as either a problem or an
opportunity seems to remain relatively constant in all
countries surveyed. Though 2009 showed a slight dip
in the numbers of respondents viewing immigration
as an opportunity, the 2010 numbers are similar to
the findings of 2008 in every country. This suggests
that overall perception of immigration as a positive or
negative phenomenon is fairly static in each national
context.
Facts about the immigrant population change percep-
tions. Of those respondents who received information
about the share of the population in their country that
was immigrant, fewer claimed that there were “too
many” immigrants in the country. Among those who
received no information, many more said that there
were “too many” immigrants.
The economic crisis may have had an effect on
attitudes about immigration, as TTI showed that
those who were unemployed or those whose personal
economic situation got worse over the 2009-2010
period were more likely to fear labor-market competi-
tion from immigrants. Also on labor-market issues,
Americans and the British continue to express the
most worry about labor-market competition, while
Italians largely see immigrants as compliments, rather
than rivals, to natives in the workplace.
Majorities or pluralities in all countries thought that
immigrants were a fiscal drain, as they use more in
34 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
health and welfare services than they contribute in
taxes. Nevertheless, continental Europeans were in
favor of giving healthcare benefits to all immigrants,
both legal and illegal. British respondents, however,
would prefer that only British citizens and legal immi-
grants be given access to the healthcare system.
In some countries, views of the government in
general differed greatly from the views of immigra-
tion management and integration management. The
British, for instance, were happy with the government
but gave it poor marks on handling immigration
matters. The Dutch, by contrast, were very unhappy
with the government but much more satisfied about
immigration management, and the Spanish were
much more satisfied with integration policy than with
their government in general.
In North America, Canadians only slightly prefer the
federal government to make decisions about who
comes to Canada for work; many Canadians would
like to see this responsibility mainly in the hands of
provincial authorities. In the United States, immigra-
tion enforcement is seen as a federal responsibility by
a majority, but a sizable minority thought that enforce-
ment should be a job for state and local authorities.
The French and the Italians in TTI 2010 had very
changed perceptions about legal and illegal immigrant
populations. The French became more negative about
both groups on a number of indicators, including
crime, labor issues, and social services, while Italians
appeared not to differentiate between the two groups.
Muslim immigrants were seen in most countries to
be less well integrated than immigrants in general.
However, most countries were much more optimistic
about second-generation integration, both among
the general immigrant population and among the
children of Muslim immigrants. In the United States,
Hispanic first- and second-generation immigrants
were seen to be integrating well and were not differ-
entiated from the general immigrant population.
Countries had divergent views about the most impor-
tant precondition to becoming a national citizen.
Germans favored language, the Dutch emphasized
language and cultural values, and Italians, Spaniards,
and the French thought that respecting political insti-
tutions and laws was the most important attribute for
immigrants to become citizens. These findings both
show the emphasis that each nationality places on
different qualities for full integration and could give
guidelines to policymakers who design the require-
ments for naturalization.
In the third year of the Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration survey, these findings and others give
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 35
insight into people’s perceptions of their immi-
grant populations, their government’s capacity for
managing migration issues, and the extent to which
various immigrant populations are integrated into
society. A number of specific policy trade-offs were
also covered in the survey, such as legalization or
return for illegal immigrants, permanent versus
temporary labor migration, and labor-focused versus
education-focused admittance preferences. Though
each of the eight countries in Transatlantic Trends:
Immigration has its own unique history and chal-
lenges when it comes to immigration, these percep-
tions and policy preferences were designed to feed
into policy debates on both sides of the Atlantic, in
order that future debates might be better informed
about public sentiments on these important issues.
 Immigration
Methodology
Methodology
TNS Opinion was commissioned to conduct the
Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey using
Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews. In each
country, a random sample of approximately 1,000
men and women, 18 years of age and older, was
interviewed. In countries where 20% or more of the
population lacks a landline telephone, including
Spain, Italy, and the United States, 20% of the
interviews were conducted by cell phone. Interviews
were conducted using Random Digit Dialing in
Europe between August 27, 2010, and September 13,
2010, and in the United States and Canada between
November 10, 2010, and November 21, 2010.
For results based on the national samples in each
of the countries surveyed, one can say with 95%
confidence that the maximum margin of error
attributable to sampling and other random effects is
+/- 3 percentage points. For results based on the total
European sample, the maximum margin of error is
+/-1.3 percentage points. In addition to sampling
error, question wording and practical difficulties in
conducting surveys can also introduce error or bias
into the findings of public opinion polls.
The results for each country are weighted according to
the following sociodemographic criteria: age, gender,
region, and level of education within each country. The
results for “Europe” are also weighted according to each
country’s population size relative to the total popula-
tion of the six European countries surveyed. For more
details on the methodology used in this survey, please
visit www.transatlantictrends.org.
36 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
When processing is complete, data from the survey
are deposited with the Roper Center at the University
of Connecticut and the Inter-University Consortium
for Political and Social Research at the University of
Michigan (ICPSR) and are available to scholars and
other interested parties. For more information, please
consult the Roper Center at www.ropercenter.uconn.
edu or the ICPSR catalog at www.icpsr.umich.edu.
NOTE ON EUROPEAN AVERAGES
From 2008 to 2010, the list of European countries
surveyed in Transatlantic Trends: Immigration has
changed. For comparability’s sake, the reports of trend
data that show average European opinion from 2008,
2009, and 2010 include data from the six European
countries surveyed in 2009 and 2010, and the five
European countries surveyed in 2008 and 2009,
excluding Spain. For reports that only include results
from 2009 and 2010, all six European countries
surveyed this year are included. For additional infor-
mation on the composition of the European averages,
please consult the table below.
TABLE OF EUROPEAN AVERAGES
Average Countries
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
EU5
and the United Kingdom
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
EU6
the United Kingdom, and Spain
 Immigration
Chart Index
CHART 1
Q26: Some people say that immigration is more of a
problem for (COUNTRY). Others see it as more of an
opportunity for (COUNTRY). Which comes closer to
your point of view?
Immigration is more of a problem for
(COUNTRY)
CHART 2
Q4a: As you may know, according to official
estimates, around XX percent of the COUNTRY
population was born in another country. In your
opinion, is this too many, a lot but not too many, or
not many?
Too many
Q4b: Generally speaking, how do you feel about the
number of people living in (COUNTRY) who were
not born in COUNTRY? Are there too many, a lot but
not too many, or too many?
Too many
CHART 3
Q9: I am now going to read a few statements that are
sometimes heard about immigrants in general. Could
you please tell me how much you agree or disagree
with each of them?
1: Immigrants take jobs away from native born
(NATIONALITY)
4: Immigrants bring down the wages of
(NATIONALITY) citizens
CHART 4
Q9.1: Immigrants take jobs away from native born
(NATIONALITY)
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 37
QD3: How does the financial situation of your
household compare with what it was 12 months ago?
Got worse
Got better or stayed the same
CHART 5
Q14: Now I am going to ask you about (In UK: social
security benefits / in US, EU, and Canada: social
benefits) available in COUNTRY. Can you please
tell me whether access to each benefit should be
available to NATIONALITY citizens only, available
to NATIONALITY citizens and all legal immigrants,
or available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
immigrants, both legal and illegal?
B.3: Access to healthcare (NOT ASKED IN
THE US)
Available to NATIONALITY citizens only
Available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
legal immigrants
Available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
immigrants, both legal and illegal
CHART 6
Q14: Now I am going to ask you about (In UK: social
security benefits / in US, EU, and Canada: social
benefits) available in COUNTRY. Can you please
tell me whether access to each benefit should be
available to NATIONALITY citizens only, available
to NATIONALITY citizens and all legal immigrants,
or available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
immigrants, both legal and illegal?
1: Access to (In UK: state schools / all others:
public schools)
 Available to NATIONALITY citizens only
Available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
legal immigrants
Available to NATIONALITY citizens and all
immigrants, both legal and illegal
CHART 7
QD2: In the past six months, would you say that the
government in general has been doing a very good
job, a good job, a poor job, or a very poor job?
Very good / good job
Q17: Thinking about the steps that have been taken
to manage immigration, would you say that the
government has been doing a very good job, a good
job, a poor job, or a very poor job?
Very good / good job
Q20: Thinking about the steps that have been taken
to integrate immigrants into NATIONALITY society,
would you say that the government has been doing a
very good job, a good job, a poor job, or a very poor
job?
Very good / good job
CHART 8
Q19: Some people think that the NATIONALITY
government should decide how many immigrants
are allowed to come to COUNTRY each year. Others
think that the European Union should decide how
many immigrants are allowed to come to each
European Union country, including COUNTRY, each
year. Which comes closer to your point of view?
The NATIONALITY government should decide
how many immigrants are allowed to come to then be required to return to their country of
COUNTRY each year
The European Union should decide how
many immigrants are allowed to come to
each European Union country, including
COUNTRY, each year
38 | T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0
CHART 9
Q18: In Canada: In decisions about who should be
able to immigrate to COUNTRY for work, do you
think that primary responsibility should be given
to…?
Provincial or local authorities
Federal government authorities
CHART 10
Q18: In United States: In enforcing immigration laws,
do you think that primary responsibility should be
given to…?
State or local authorities
Federal government authorities
CHART 11
Q7: Now I am going to read you a few statements that
are sometimes heard about legal immigrants. Can you
please tell me to what extent you agree or disagree
with the following statements?
A.2: Legal immigrants increase crime in our
society
CHART 12
Q11: Some people think that legal immigrants
who come to (COUNTRY) to work should only be
admitted temporarily and then be required to return
to their country of origin. Others feel that they should
be given the opportunity to stay permanently. Which
comes closer to your point of view?
They should be given the opportunity to stay
permanently
They should only be admitted temporarily and
origin
It depends on the circumstances
CHART 13
Q7: Now I am going to read you a few statements that
are sometimes heard about legal immigrants. Can you
please tell me to what extent you agree or disagree
with the following statements?
1: (SPLIT A: Legal / SPLIT B: Illegal) immi-
grants are a burden on social services like
schools and hospitals
2: (SPLIT A: Legal / SPLIT B: Illegal) immi-
grants increase crime in our society
5: (SPLIT A: Legal / SPLIT B: Illegal) immi-
grants are often exploited in the workplace
CHART 14
Q12: Thinking now about immigrants who are
currently living in (COUNTRY) illegally, should they
be required to return to their country of origin, or
should they be given the opportunity to obtain legal
status that allows them to stay here?
They should be required to return to their
country of origin
They should be given the opportunity to
obtain legal status that allows them to stay in
(COUNTRY)
CHART 15
Q13: Thinking about policies that could be adopted
in (COUNTRY) at the national level, to what extent
do you support or oppose the following measures
designed to reduce illegal immigration into
(COUNTRY)?
A.4: Making it easier for immigrants to legally
enter (COUNTRY) to work and study
CHART 16
Q28: Generally speaking, how well do you think
that (SPLIT A: Muslim immigrants / SPLIT B:
immigrants) are integrating into NATIONALITY
society?
T R A N S A T L A N T I C T R E N D S : I M M I G R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 | 39
CHART 17
Q28: Generally speaking, how well do you think
that (SPLIT B: Immigrants / SPLIT C: Hispanic
immigrants) are integrating into NATIONALITY
society?
Q29: And what about the (SPLIT B: Children
of immigrants / SPLIT C: Children of Hispanic
immigrants) who were born in COUNTRY?
How well do you think they are integrating into
NATIONALITY society?
CHART 18
Q29: And what about the (SPLIT A: Children
of Muslim immigrants / SPLIT B: Children of
immigrants) who were born in COUNTRY?
How well do you think they are integrating into
NATIONALITY society?
CHART 19
Q10a: Which of the following attributes do you think
is the most important precondition to obtaining
NATIONALITY citizenship (U.S. ONLY: American
citizenship)?
Sharing NATIONALITY cultural values
Being able to speak NATIONAL
LANGUAGE(S)
Respecting NATIONALITY political institu-
tions and laws
CHART 20
Q22: Some people think that legal immigrants should
have the right to vote in local government elections.
Others think that this right should be reserved for
(NATIONALITY) citizens only. Which comes closer
to your point of view?
Legal immigrants should have the right to vote
in local government elections
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Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States,
the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, and the Barrow Cadbury Trust,
with additional support from the Fundación BBVA.